Losing Tickets and Strands of Sunshine
by TheBlueFoxtrot A Samba
Summary: There's a moment when someone says 'Oh there you are. I've been looking for you forever.' Then sometimes, there's a moment when someone says 'Oh. There you are...I guess you'll do.'


26 Romantic movie quotes challenge: There is a moment when someone says to one's self, 'Oh, there you are, I've been looking for you forever.' AND Crayola Challenge: #7 is Yellow, #9 is losing lottery ticket and #17 is Lust.

Disclaimer: That's it.

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><p>There is a moment when someone says to one's self, 'Oh, there you are, I've been looking for you forever.' It's an obvious click, and everything just clicks into place. And then one wonders if this is the right person. The boy wonders if someone made a mistake somewhere and slipped a wrong gear of something. Because he knows that this person is <em>it. <em>It's just something felt by the whole being and he just _knows._ But then there's another part that just has to wonder if this is right. Because yesterday, he could have just sworn it had to be that other girl. Just yesterday, he could have sworn that he hated this girl.

Yet it's been said, there's a thin line between love and hate. Wally West ran across that line miles ago and just now noticed.

Even as the thought ran through his head, he was slow to truly grasp it. It only took a moment, however, for it to come together. His hand went limp, dropping the apple he held onto the counter. His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. His lungs only pulled in little gasps of air. His heart pounded in his ears.

He had a crush on Artemis.

…He had _crush_ on the Wicked Bro-replacing Witch of the East.

When did his dreams of silky red hair and sweet words morph into long golden tresses and snarky, challenging remarks? When did racing to the Mountain, anticipating another verbal match of wit and insults, become the highlight of his day? Really, their spars were second only to the satisfaction of kicking Robin's butt in a video game tournament. In all honesty, it was a _close_ second.

And it made no sense.

A frown pinching between his brow, he leaned on the counter to try and wrap his mind around this startling development. In the kitchen of Mount Justice, it was only he and his forgotten apple. For once, he was there early, and it'd be better if he resolved this issue before the others came and broke his concentration. So this led to his first question.

When did he lose his mind? It was the only explanation. He _must_ have lost his mind. It couldn't just be natural. Or Black Canary had hit him _way _too hard during training. But then, even _she _couldn't hit that hard. Heck, _Superman _couldn't hit him _that _hard!

Some people say that there's no helping who someone falls in love with. Wally bet there must be some people who felt like they won the jackpot when they found their 'somebody'. Take his aunt and uncle; his mom and dad. They cashed in big-time, merrily sailing on the _loooooove boat._

Which left him wondering just what kind of lottery did he win? Or maybe he didn't win. Maybe he'd lost…_spectacularly._ That was it. He'd landed the mother of all losing lottery tickets in the love game. His consolation prize was none other than Miss Blonde-and-Bad-All-By-Myself.

That didn't explain why this had happened, why he was thinking these things. Sure, if he looked past her many, _many _faults, Artemis was almost okay. She was a good fighter. Either completely insane or totally brave. Stubborn beyond all belief, but he had to give her credit for not backing down though. And he'd admit in the privacy of his own mind, she was sorta something like pretty. She had ridiculously long blonde hair; it must be a killer to wash all that. It was a nice shade of yellow though. Kinda gold toned. It had this way of shining in the sunlight, like spun gold or something. Was it as soft as it looked? Maybe he could casually just to –

Wally physically slapped himself before he could finish that train of thought. Then he groaned, as that hurt more than a little. Rubbing the side of his cheek, he considered it worth it. It wouldn't due to have his thoughts turn as mutinous as his emotions.

There had to be a reasonable explanation for this insanity.

Now, Wally didn't believe in magic. That was well-established. Despite his recent experience with Dr. Fate and his helmet, he still insisted on this. He also remembered the dying man's words about him finding a spitfire. He reasoned to himself that maybe, subconsciously, his brain had done something with the man's words and it now influenced the obvious psychotic break from reality he was having. It was the only thing that made sense. If anyone he knew was a spitfire, it was Artemis. Pfft! She could spit fire and brimstone!

So that's all this was. The words of a dying man just had a transient effect on his mental faculties. It wasn't every day he watched someone die, after all. Apparently, it had traumatized him even more than he thought. He should probably talk to someone about this, but no way was he going to tell anyone that a dead guy whose spirit was trapped in a helmet had cursed him into falling in love with Artemis. Not that he believed that mess about the helmet. Or was in love with Artemis. If anything, it was a trauma induced crush.

That's all. Nothing more. That was totally it.

Assured of this and convinced it was fact rather than conjecture, Wally picked up his apple to finish it off, completely worry free. Then Artemis walked through the door when he had his mouth open to take a bite. He found his pulse drumming in his ears, and his breathing hitched a little. Butterflies would have been welcome to the swarm of hornets in his belly. Then Artemis turned to him, and he realized he was staring at her with his mouth hanging open and snapped it shut. Sometimes, he couldn't help but stare. Despite himself, he occasionally had the odd thought that Artemis was attractive. But he was a fifteen year old boy; most things that could legitimately wear a skirt were attractive to him.

She eyed him critically for a moment before ignoring him completely and walking around to the fridge. Wally watched from his peripheral as she leaned in, her yellow hair hanging across her back like a curtain, and grabbed a soda. She straightened up, and he fixed his gaze anywhere but her as she marched past him again towards the hall.

"Hey, Artemis."

She stopped and looked at him over her shoulder.

"What?"

"Just…hey. A guy can't be friendly or something?"

For an awkward moment, Artemis didn't say anything, and Wally mentally called himself every kind of idiot. Then her lips lifted into a mysterious smile, and his heart did a quick jig in his chest.

"Hi, Wally." She waved and walked away, her gold hair weaving a trail of sunshine after her.

Leaving Wally breathless for a space or two. Holding the apple aloft, he let his head flop down onto the countertop. Wonderful. Not only were his thoughts and emotions traitor to him, so were his hormones. And he was likening her hair to sunshine. He was officially disgusted with himself.

Wally really felt like there was someone laughing at him. And someone would agree and say he deserved it. The boy should know better than to fight Fate, after all.

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><p>AN: Did you know that if you re-heat coffee in the microwave, it might explode?


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